PANAJI
“The next outbreak? We’re not ready” was the simple warning contained in the Ted talk by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates back in 2017. It is the end of 2020, a year into the raging Covid-19 pandemic, and Gates’ prophecy still holds true at least in the case of Goa. Not only are we still not ready, but we have also, in fact, buried our head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich.
The latest and the most excruciatingly painful example of this is the fact that despite it being known since September that a new variant of the dreaded coronavirus has begun to spread in the United Kingdom, the tourist state of Goa has made no efforts to arm or defend its people.
The Health Department began a scramble in the fourth week of December to locate the 900-odd passengers who landed in Goa from the UK since December 8. Around 16 of these UK returnees have tested positive for Covid-19 so far and samples from 400 more are being collected for testing.
The samples of those who test positive from among this group will be forwarded to the National Institute of Virology, Pune for genomic study to verify whether any of them have been infected by the new mutated strain of the coronavirus.
On this backdrop, knowing that the Goa government conducted Zilla Panchayat polls on December 12 sends shivers down the spine. Around 4.50 lakh voters cast ballots in the Zilla Panchayat polls in Goa and politics won over public health in those two days of merry-making and mud-slinging.
An entire year into the pandemic and the state government has still no mechanism in place to meet or even the intention of preventing such exigencies that are bound to emerge, well, during a pandemic.
Meanwhile, a regular stream of Covid deaths continues to be reported in the mortality bulletin released by the Directorate of Health Services. As on Tuesday, the total Covid victim count of Goa had touched 735. The recovery rate stands strong at 96.69 per cent but this gives no hope when one sees the sea of humanity milling on the beaches of Goa. With no law-enforcement officials in sight, SOPs have been washed away by the waves. Goa is poised to welcome the New Year 2021 with gleeful abandon as has never been experienced before.
Mere nine months ago, on March 21, the state government announced Covid-induced lockdown effectively sealing the state borders and closing down tourism to prevent an outbreak of Covid-19 amid the tourist season. The three-week-long national lockdown came into force soon after, from March 24, midnight.
On March 25, Goa’s first Covid-19 positive case was detected. By the last week of December, the total confirmed cases in Goa have touched 50,884 of which 950 are active cases and 49,199 have recovered, albeit with various after-effects. Over half the recovered patients have recuperated under home isolation right from July 22 with very little help from government medical infrastructure right up till November.
In addition to the 220-bedded ESI Covid Hospital, Goa’s Covid Hospitals now include Sub-District Hospital in Ponda, South Goa District Hospital in Margao, Hospicio in Margao as well as the Goa Medical College and Hospital in Bambolim. Additionally, a few private hospitals have also begun handling Covid cases. But with the government unwilling to take up the responsibility of capping the rates for Covid treatment in private hospitals by bringing the treatment under Deen Dayal Swasthya Seva Yojana, the majority is forced to flock to government medical institutions.
Despite the repeated acknowledgement of the need to enhance Goa’s testing capacity to handle over 2,000 samples a day, the sample testing capacity woefully lags much below this point. Incoming domestic tourists are allowed easy entry into the tourist state and only the international travellers are subjected to RT-PCR Covid tests.
It may be recalled that three months into the strict lockdown, unable to handle the crumbling finances and the building pressure from business lobbies, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant declared that hotels and restaurants in Goa can resume operations from July 2 onwards subject to approval by the Tourism Department as well as the safety regulations in force.
If the government has been quick at anything during the pandemic, it is altering its narrative around the mounting number of Covid deaths and rising number of cases. Initially, the underlying comorbid conditions were the culprits. Then came Ganesh Chaturthi and the people were blamed for flouting Covid safety protocols. Covid patients were then blamed for not visiting the hospital in time as well as for overcrowding the hospitals. As the festive month of December draws to a close, Goans brace themselves for yet another round of accusations.
